‘Phoring’, ‘Chavunilum’ win India bazaar awards

Goa co-prod market draws international interest

GOA, India — The 6th annual Film Bazaar organised by India’s National Film Development Corp. wrapped Saturday with writer-director Vipin Vijay winning the Indian tourism ministry’s development award of $18,000 for “Chavunilum, A Voice From Elsewhere.” Indranil Roychowdhury won the Prasad Labs post-production completion award for “Phoring” (Dragonfly).

Business was brisk at the co-production market. Sydney-based Indo-French helmer Partho Sen-Gupta’s psychological thriller “Arunoday” (Sunrise), starring Adil Hussain (“Life of Pi”) and Tannishtha Chatterjee (“Brick Lane”), had France’s Dolce Vita Films and India’s Independent Movies and the NFDC on board coming into the market. U.S. and India based Infinitum Productions stepped in to complete financing. Filming begins March 2013.

India’s Sikhya Entertainment and Italy’s Dugong Production signed a deal to co-produce documentary “An Indian Kiss.”. Latin American outfit FilmSharks International was pre-selling helmer Carlos Saura’s “Guernica 33 Days,” starring Antonio Banderas and Gwyneth Paltrow. The company was also selling remake rights of Latin American films to Indian producers and negotiating to represent a few Bollywood films for the territory.

The Bazaar is growing every year with this year’s edition having some 750 delegates from 32 countries. Marten Rabarts, who as artistic director of Amsterdam’s Binger Filmlab ran a screenwriting workshop at the Bazaar, joined the NFDC earlier this year as the head of training and development.

“I feel that there is now a critical mass of independent filmmakers in India who want their work to be received and understood and viable, both in the festival circuit and the marketplace and NFDC is responding to this, sort of returning quality Indian cinema to the world, which has been in abeyance for quite some time,” Rabarts told Variety.

The Bazaar also saw presentations from the Cannes, Venice and Toronto fests and by Screen Australia, New Zealand Film Commission and the Polish Film Institute that revealed means of co-operation between India and those countries. India will be the guest country at Cannes 2013.